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Resources updated between Monday, March 19, 2018 and Sunday, March 25, 2018

March 25, 2018

The victim, Maarib Al Hishmawi

Parents of a Texas high school student who was reported missing in late January had abused their daughter after she refused an arranged marriage, leading her to run away from home until she was found in mid-March, police said.

Maarib Al Hishmawi, 16, was reported missing on Jan. 30 after she was last seen leaving Taft High School in Bexar County. She was located in mid-March when she was taken in by an organization that cared for her after she ran away, KSAT reported.

Authorities on Friday said Al Hishmawi's parents - Abdulah Fahmi Al Hishmawi, 34, and Hamdiyah Saha Al Hishmawi, 33 - had allegedly beaten their daughter with a broomstick and poured hot cooking oil on her when she refused to marry a man in another city. The parents reportedly agreed to the arranged marriage in exchange for $20,000.

"This young lady, at various times over that time period was subjected to some pretty bad abuse because she didn't want to be married to this person," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said on Friday, according to KSAT.

"Several times it was reported to us that this young lady was abused with hot cooking oil being thrown on her body. She was beat with broomsticks," Salazar added. "At least one point, she was choked almost to the point of unconsciousness."

The teenage girl and her five siblings, between the ages 5 and 15, were placed under Child Protective Services custody.

The parents face charges of continuous violence against a family member. They were taken into custody on Friday.

Police said the man who was arranged to be married to Al Hishmawi may also be charged in the case.

"In 1994, John Bolton said that if the United Nations Secretariat building in New York 'lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.' The quote makes an appearance nearly every time Bolton's critics compile a hit parade of his alleged infamies.

My question is: Why is the remark even controversial?

The U.N. is a never-ending scandal disguised as an everlasting hope. The hope is that dialogue can overcome distrust and collective security can be made to work in the interests of humanity. Reality says otherwise. Trust is established by deeds, not words. Collective security is a recipe for international paralysis or worse. Just ask the people of Aleppo.

As for the scandals - where to start? U.N. peacekeepers caused a cholera epidemic in Haiti that so far has taken 10,000 lives. Yet it took U.N. headquarters six years to acknowledge responsibility. An Associated Press investigation found 'nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other personnel around the world' over a 12-year period, including 300 allegations involving children. 'But only a fraction of the alleged perpetrators served jail time.'..."

French security and police gather outside the Super U supermarket in the town of Trebes, southern France, where a terrorist took hostages and killed at least two before he was killed by security forces

The Islamic State jihadist terror group claimed responsibility for a shooting spree and hostage siege on Friday in southern France, its propaganda agency said.

"The person who carried out the attack in Trebes in southern France is a soldier of the Islamic State and he carried out the operation in response to a call to target states" of the anti-IS international coalition, the Amaq agency said in a statement on social messaging app Telegram.

At least three people were killed in a shooting spree and hostage siege in southern France, after a terrorist carried out three separate attacks in the medieval town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes.

The assailant was known to police but was not considered a terror threat, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

Collomb named the attacker, who was killed by police, as 26-year-old Redouane Lakdim and described him as a small-time drug dealer.

"He was known by the police for petty crimes, we had monitored him and did not think he had been radicalized," Collomb said after arriving at the scene of the hostage-taking in the town of Trebes, near Carcassonne.

"He was already under surveillance when he suddenly decided to act," he said.

Security sources had said the terrorist was believed to be a Moroccan who was on a watch list of suspected Islamic extremists, but Collomb did not confirm his nationality.

Witnesses said Lakdim shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) at a supermarket in Trebes, where he took several people hostage after opening fire on passengers in a car and a police officer in nearby Carcassonne.

He eventually let the hostages go after a policeman offered to take their place.

Security forces stormed the store after he shot the officer who was seriously wounded, Collomb said.